The present invention relates to a centrifugal compressor.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-186238 describes an example of a compressor including a speed increaser. One example of a speed increaser includes a ring member, a high-speed shaft, rollers, and a speed increaser chamber. The rotation of a low-speed shaft rotates the ring member. The high-speed shaft is located at the inner side of the ring member. The rollers are located between the ring member and the high-speed shaft in contact with both of the ring member and the high-speed shaft. The speed increaser chamber accommodates the ring member, the high-speed shaft, and the rollers.
In the speed increaser, the location where the rollers contact the ring member and the location where the rollers contact the high-speed shaft need to be oiled to reduce wear and avoid seizure.
The compressor of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-186238 includes a reservoir chamber that is separate from the speed increaser chamber and located near the outer surface of a housing. This enlarges the compressor. To avoid enlargement of the compressor, the speed increaser chamber can be configured to also serve as the reservoir chamber. In this case, the ring member will be immersed in the oil that is stored in the speed increaser chamber. This will increase the agitation resistance when the ring member rotates and lower the efficiency of the speed increaser.